PSP Emulators and ISOs: Playing Games from Other Consoles and Backing up Your UMDs

The PSP has no equal when it comes to handheld gaming: beautiful graphics, intuitive controls, and releases that put many console systems to shame. While Sony did a good job with the available gaming options, we are glad to inform you that there is so much more! For example, did you know it is also possible to play games from the Game Boy Advanced, NES and SNES, Sega Genesis, and other consoles? What about playing PSP games like Lumines — without the UMD? With the use of emulators and ISOs it is possible. If you are a PSP owner, you really can't afford to miss this article that shows you how to set up an emulator and create backups of your UMDs to play directly from Memory Sticks.

Like this article? We recommend

Like this article? We recommend

The PSP is the hottest handheld device ever released. It does movies,
pictures, songs, gaming, and it does them with pizzazz. Beautiful graphics, an
intuitive design, and a flare that you would expect from Apple all have helped
make the PSP this year's greatest little gadget.

Despite the fact that the PSP already outperforms all other handheld
consoles, there are many people in this world who looked at this device at its
launch and wondered, 'I wonder what else it can do?' Answers to this
question started to roll in within one week of the US release, and they
haven't stopped. As of this article's writing (late August, 2005), it
is now possible to surf the net, play thousands of emulated games, run Linux and
Windows, rip the game from a UMD and play it from a memory stick, operate a
calculator, view camera images, and more. Just keeping up with the developments
is practically a full-time job.

While we would like to look at everything, this article will only focus on
one thing: games. (A list of other PSP-specific content on Informit is at the
end of this article.) Specifically, we are going to examine emulators that allow
you to play games from other consoles systems. We'll also explain how to
create backups of your UMD games and play them right from the Memory Stick Pro
Duo. If you are reading this and do not own a PSP, then I would hope that by the
end of this article you will have found a few reasons to get out and buy one!

Version 1.5 Required

The information contained in this article only applies to PSP firmware
version 1.0 and 1.5. If you do not have one of these versions, then you are
currently out of luck. Sony 'fixed' the loopholes that allow emulators
to run in versions 1.51 and above, and complete changed things around in the
latest version 2.0. In the future, remember that you should never upgrade your
firmware unless it is absolutely necessary. To determine what version
firmware you have installed, follow the steps below: